Lightning Travels Through Backyard, Hits Foxboro Home

FOXBORO (CBS) – It looked like someone had a backhoe digging a 25-foot trench in the backyard. But it wasn’t an excavation site, it was a lightning strike with a powerful surge that traveled through the ground, up a downspout and out through the roof of a Foxboro home.

The 74-year-old homeowner was inside as the electrical shock also tore up the driveway, stairs to a back deck and left the railing in pieces.

“She’s been taken to the hospital,” said the homeowner’s son Marc Door. “She was obviously shaken up, but she’s okay.”

A tree in the backyard was not only splintered on impact, but large rocks and branches took flight into neighboring yards. “It’s amazing a rock that heavy can fly that far,” said neighbor Nick Gildred.

It’s unclear if it was a rock and or a secondary strike that shattered the glass tabletop on his deck. “As soon as I heard the clap of lightning I heard an explosion out here,” he said.

It was a heart pounding few seconds that left quite a mark on these homes on Mechanic Street. “I didn’t realize you can get this much damage from a single lightning bolt,” said Gildred.

With the corners of the home burned and the yard dug up, Marc Door says there’s an enormous cleanup ahead, in what used to be an “immaculate” backyard.